| This thesis marks an attempt to expand Jurgen Habermas's proceduralist theory of law to the supranational level. It links the legitimacy of law to morality by suggesting that where there is substantial dissonance between the two, questions of legitimacy arise. Recognizing that American hegemony plays a central role in legitimation at the supranational level, this thesis attempts to address the negative effects of hegemony on the legitimacy of law. It strives to establish an understanding of the intricacies of hegemonic strategies of legitimation, and, through an account of the NATO intervention in Kosovo and the HIV/AIDS crisis in Africa, demonstrates that such strategies regularly force a dissonance between law and morality as hegemonic acts of self-preservation. This thesis offers a two-stage approach in an attempt to moderate the dissonance; the first step addresses the function of dissent in weakening the hegemonic order and lays the groundwork for the second step, which focuses on the role of justification in moderating cognitive dissonance. Ultimately, the proceduralist theory of supranational law that is offered is a piece of the broader cosmopolitan project in that it promotes a conception of universal morality, and endeavours to establish a normative approach to the legitimation of law to ensure the morality and legality of future responses to global crises. |
